Madison Hynes – Independent Project

Madison Hynes – Independent Project

Class of 2017

Introduction to Topic

For my independent project I decided to choose pediatric nursing as my topic. Pediatric nursing is all about making the patient’s feel as comfortable as possible and giving them all of the care you can in order to help them get or feel better. The reason I chose pediatric nursing is because I love kids and I wanted to know more about the job of a pediatric nurse and what all they do on a daily basis to take care of their patients. Halfway through my project I realized I did not want to be a pediatric nurse, but instead I want to be a mechanical engineer. I decided that I do not want to work in a hospital environment, instead I want to create new things or improve new things to make them better. Because of this, I decided to design an improvement of a needle cover. It will prevent patients from accidentally getting poked with a needle somewhere they should not, or it will prevent a patient from grabbing the needle and poking themselves or the nurse/doctor with the needle.

Project Description

The entire point of my independent project is to come up with an innovation that can improve the field of my interest. The field I chose was pediatric nursing, and every day that I shadowed, I talked to my mentor about things that could be improved that could make her job as a pediatric nurse better. My mentor told me many stories about different things she has seen and many things that she thinks could be improved. One day I was thinking about needles since they are something that a lot of children and other patients have to get very often, for various reasons. I was thinking about how sometimes kids can move easily when getting a shot, and there is always a chance that a child could move suddenly or quickly and cause a needle to go somewhere it is not. Or a patient can grab the needle and poke themselves or their nurse or doctor with it and hurt them. I decided to create a sort of protective cover for the needle that will prevent one of these things from happening in the future.

Experience Description

Pediatric nursing is a very interesting field that entails a lot more work than some people think. Some say that being a nurse is easy and there is not much to it, but that is the opposite of what I learned from my experience. I learned that pediatric nursing includes a lot more than just taking care of patients. It also includes taking care of the floor as a whole and also taking care of the staff that you work with in order to keep everything on the floor run smoothly. You have to make sure that all of the rooms are clean on the floor constantly, you have to make sure that each patient is checked up on as often as they should be, you have to make sure you ask patients if they need anything as frequently as possible so they can feel as comfortable as they can in the hospital environment, you have to keep up with entering things into the system and onto the computers so that everything about the patients can be recorded so they can get admitted and be discharged and go home as soon as possible. There are many aspects of pediatric nursing that I learned from shadowing, and I was very interested in learning more and more about it each time I went to the hospital to shadow. I got to meet tons of patients and they were all very different in what they were in the hospital for and how they handled it. I met many kids aged from infants to 16 year old’s and they were all there for different reasons. I got to see different doctors and different kinds of nurses to come in and help certain patients every once in awhile, which I enjoyed very much. I enjoyed my time learning about pediatric nursing, but halfway through shadowing I realized I did not want to be a pediatric nurse, or a nurse at all. Actually, I realized I do not work in any hospital environment. Instead I came to figure out that I want to be a mechanical engineer. Ever since I was little, I loved making things and building things and I always wondered how things and machines worked, and I still think the same.

Innovation Description

My innovation is an improvement of a needle cover. The needle covers that already exist protect the needle before and/or after it is used. They protect the needle before use because they are in a plastic covering that lets the needle out when the person administering it activates it, or the needle retracts back into a plastic cover after it is used to prevent the needle from contaminating anyone or anything else. My design is used to cover the needle before it is used, when it is being used, and after it is being used. The materials that I used in order to make my innovation are:

Medicine syringe

Nail

Hot glue

Two washers

Magnetic tape

Electrical tape

Foam

Plastic tubing

Paperclip

Clear tape

White paper

Double-sided tape

I used a medicine syringe and glued a nail to it to make it look like a needle. Then I took plastic tubing and connected it to the syringe so it would surround the nail (needle) and so that it would be the same length as the needle. Then I took a washer and glued it to the top of the plastic tubing that was at the point of the needle, and I covered the washer with a piece of paper to make it less magnetic. I then took a paper clip and put a piece of magnet on it that would cover the hole of the washer to prevent the needle from coming out, and I made it so that it was freely movable from side to side. With the other washer I put double sided tape on one side to be used to stick to the patient wherever you would be placing the needle. On the other side of the washer I covered it with mostly foam, and a little sliver of magnetic tape. When the paper clip on the syringe that is blocking the needle from coming out comes in contact with the magnet on the other washer, it moves out of the way and lets the needle go through into the patient, and then when the needle is pulled away the paper clip moves back over the hole to cover the needle back up and it is recycled. This means that the only way the needle can make contact with the patient is when it is connected to the small circular sticky piece on the patient. The part that sticks onto the patient can also be recycled, since after a short amount of time or use the stickiness of it will wear out and it will not be able to be used again. The whole idea of my innovation is to prevent a child or a pediatric patient from suddenly move or jerking when being given a shot and then having them get stuck in the wrong spot. My innovation also prevents a patient from grabbing the needle and hurting themselves or the nurse with it. My design can not only be used for pediatric patients, but also for psychiatric patients who may try to harm themselves or their nurses or doctors with a needle. It took me about two hours to come up with the full idea of my device and draw it out and think it out. It took about three hours to research what already exists that is close to my device. It took about 2 hours to locate and purchase the materials for my device because the syringe and the plastic tubing I chose to use was very specific and hard to find. And finally, it took me about 3 hours to put together my innovation and tweak things in order to make it better,

Introduction to Topic

For my independent project I decided to choose pediatric nursing as my topic. Pediatric nursing is all about making the patient’s feel as comfortable as possible and giving them all of the care you can in order to help them get or feel better. The reason I chose pediatric nursing is because I love kids and I wanted to know more about the job of a pediatric nurse and what all they do on a daily basis to take care of their patients. Halfway through my project I realized I did not want to be a pediatric nurse, but instead I want to be a mechanical engineer. I decided that I do not want to work in a hospital environment, instead I want to create new things or improve new things to make them better. Because of this, I decided to design an improvement of a needle cover. It will prevent patients from accidentally getting poked with a needle somewhere they should not, or it will prevent a patient from grabbing the needle and poking themselves or the nurse/doctor with the needle.

Project Description

The entire point of my independent project is to come up with an innovation that can improve the field of my interest. The field I chose was pediatric nursing, and every day that I shadowed, I talked to my mentor about things that could be improved that could make her job as a pediatric nurse better. My mentor told me many stories about different things she has seen and many things that she thinks could be improved. One day I was thinking about needles since they are something that a lot of children and other patients have to get very often, for various reasons. I was thinking about how sometimes kids can move easily when getting a shot, and there is always a chance that a child could move suddenly or quickly and cause a needle to go somewhere it is not. Or a patient can grab the needle and poke themselves or their nurse or doctor with it and hurt them. I decided to create a sort of protective cover for the needle that will prevent one of these things from happening in the future.

Experience Description

Pediatric nursing is a very interesting field that entails a lot more work than some people think. Some say that being a nurse is easy and there is not much to it, but that is the opposite of what I learned from my experience. I learned that pediatric nursing includes a lot more than just taking care of patients. It also includes taking care of the floor as a whole and also taking care of the staff that you work with in order to keep everything on the floor run smoothly. You have to make sure that all of the rooms are clean on the floor constantly, you have to make sure that each patient is checked up on as often as they should be, you have to make sure you ask patients if they need anything as frequently as possible so they can feel as comfortable as they can in the hospital environment, you have to keep up with entering things into the system and onto the computers so that everything about the patients can be recorded so they can get admitted and be discharged and go home as soon as possible. There are many aspects of pediatric nursing that I learned from shadowing, and I was very interested in learning more and more about it each time I went to the hospital to shadow. I got to meet tons of patients and they were all very different in what they were in the hospital for and how they handled it. I met many kids aged from infants to 16 year old’s and they were all there for different reasons. I got to see different doctors and different kinds of nurses to come in and help certain patients every once in awhile, which I enjoyed very much. I enjoyed my time learning about pediatric nursing, but halfway through shadowing I realized I did not want to be a pediatric nurse, or a nurse at all. Actually, I realized I do not work in any hospital environment. Instead I came to figure out that I want to be a mechanical engineer. Ever since I was little, I loved making things and building things and I always wondered how things and machines worked, and I still think the same.

Innovation Description

My innovation is an improvement of a needle cover. The needle covers that already exist protect the needle before and/or after it is used. They protect the needle before use because they are in a plastic covering that lets the needle out when the person administering it activates it, or the needle retracts back into a plastic cover after it is used to prevent the needle from contaminating anyone or anything else. My design is used to cover the needle before it is used, when it is being used, and after it is being used. The materials that I used in order to make my innovation are:

Medicine syringe

Nail

Hot glue

Two washers

Magnetic tape

Electrical tape

Foam

Plastic tubing

Paperclip

Clear tape

White paper

Double-sided tape

I used a medicine syringe and glued a nail to it to make it look like a needle. Then I took plastic tubing and connected it to the syringe so it would surround the nail (needle) and so that it would be the same length as the needle. Then I took a washer and glued it to the top of the plastic tubing that was at the point of the needle, and I covered the washer with a piece of paper to make it less magnetic. I then took a paper clip and put a piece of magnet on it that would cover the hole of the washer to prevent the needle from coming out, and I made it so that it was freely movable from side to side. With the other washer I put double sided tape on one side to be used to stick to the patient wherever you would be placing the needle. On the other side of the washer I covered it with mostly foam, and a little sliver of magnetic tape. When the paper clip on the syringe that is blocking the needle from coming out comes in contact with the magnet on the other washer, it moves out of the way and lets the needle go through into the patient, and then when the needle is pulled away the paper clip moves back over the hole to cover the needle back up and it is recycled. This means that the only way the needle can make contact with the patient is when it is connected to the small circular sticky piece on the patient. The part that sticks onto the patient can also be recycled, since after a short amount of time or use the stickiness of it will wear out and it will not be able to be used again. The whole idea of my innovation is to prevent a child or a pediatric patient from suddenly move or jerking when being given a shot and then having them get stuck in the wrong spot. My innovation also prevents a patient from grabbing the needle and hurting themselves or the nurse with it. My design can not only be used for pediatric patients, but also for psychiatric patients who may try to harm themselves or their nurses or doctors with a needle. It took me about two hours to come up with the full idea of my device and draw it out and think it out. It took about three hours to research what already exists that is close to my device. It took about 2 hours to locate and purchase the materials for my device because the syringe and the plastic tubing I chose to use was very specific and hard to find. And finally, it took me about 3 hours to put together my innovation and tweak things in order to make it better,